Facebook, Twitter Reveal New Stats at Advertising Week

Facebook and Twitter have released new ad-related data in conjunction with Advertising Week, which ends tomorrow.

Let’s begin with Facebook. Its partner, Nielsen, reported on Monday that broad targeting (e.g., adults aged 18 to 54) for ads across the web – excluding Facebook – is far more effective than narrow targeting (e.g., women 18 to 34). The former tactic hits the mark 72 percent of the time, according to a Nielsen blog post, while narrow targeting only produced the same result at 35 percent.

David Fischer, Facebook VP of advertising and global operation, compared the cross-web Nielsen data with Facebook-specific numbers during a speech in New York on Tuesday. Citing research from Nielsen’s Online Campaign Rating (OCR) system, he said Facebook ads that use broad targeting hit the mark by more than 95 percent, while narrow targeting on the social site achieves at least 90 percent.

Meanwhile, Adam Bain, Twitter’s chief revenue officer, said at the IAB MIXX conference on Tuesday that his company now has 1,600 brand advertisers. This includes the micro-blogging site’s Promoted Tweets, Promoted Products, and Promoted Trends products. Around the same time last year, Twitter only had a handful of paid advertisers.

In addition, on its blog Monday, the San Francisco-based Internet firm said marketers have seen an engagement rate between 3 and 5 percent for Promoted Tweets. “Engagement rate” entails clicks on a link in a tweet, retweets, favorites, and replies to a tweet.